Implements or devices have been used to install or route electrical wires and cables in existing structures in various buildings, houses, or other structures. These devices help an installer route or guide the wires and/or cables within existing cavities, ceilings, trusses, attics, trailers, studs, conduits, walls, framed regions, or other structural spaces between or within structures (such as “blind” or tightly bound spaces). The devices or implements can include rods, an electrician's “snake” or semi-flexible rod or “fish” tape. Co-pending, co-assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/307,058, entitled Apparatus and Method for Routing Cables and Wires, describes an exemplary apparatus for routing and guiding cables and/or wires. The content of this application is hereby incorporated by reference as if recited in full herein.
Thin long rods have been used to “fish” or guide the cable or wire in crawl spaces or other tightly bound spaces. The glow rod is an elongate thin pole-like device that can be used to “fish” or direct a cable or wire in the router space. One type of rod used to route cables and/or wires is a glow rod. A glow rod is typically configured to be a light-weight device with sufficient rigidity so as to be able to engage and direct a wire or cable to be routed as desired. Certain types of glow rods can generate light through chemical phosphorescence; others are electroluminescent rods that can be internally or externally illuminated. The glow rod may be formed of a transparent or translucent fiberglass material. The glow rod may be between about 5-20 feet long, or longer, and have a relatively small diameter, such as, for example about 0.25-0.5 inches. Certain glow rods may have about a 1 cm diameter and be about 6 feet long. Exemplary glow rods are GLO-RODS available from MidSouth Wire and Cable Company, located in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Unfortunately, use of typical glow rods may require two installers, one on each end of the device in order to use the rod to route the wire and/or cable into the desired position. That is a first installer is required at the entry site to hold the rod as it fishes to an exit site and the other installer is at the exit site where he/she locates the glow rod and then attaches a cable or wire to the rod. The second installer then retrieves the glow rod with the attached wire or cable and routes the glow rod holding the wire or cable through the router space and out through the rod original entry site.